SHE CRIED

The posts on here are going to be all over the place for a while until I catch up with myself. I have to get this particular story on first as time goes so quickly it will be fish and chip paper before we know it. 

You all know if you read my Blog regularly that I belong to the Popular Patchwork Magazine Forum.....well one of the Members on there - TESSA - proposed to her chap - TERRY - this year 29th February, and the man [sensibly] said YES. 

So of course we on the forum had to do something special for her didn't we....KATY, the lady in charge of the forum, sent out messages to folk and she had a great response, 33 ladies wished to take part in the making of a QUILT for Tessa and Terry. So we set to and designed a quilt for them, the fabrics to be used were Fossil Ferns and in Autumn colours as they are Tessa's favourites, sorry Terry, you win some you lose some and anyway you have got or will have Tessa very soon now.

Oh forgot to tell you the date set for the wedding was 8 September 2012, yep this year....but I had other plans for that, I decided we would have the quilt made and finished way before that date and we would present it to her at the FoQ this year.

To cut a long story short----too late---hahaha, the job got done, along with a bag for Tessa from some of the leftovers and a book of the story of how the quilt was made, and lucky lucky you are able to see a video of the presentation to Tessa of said items, which my very clever daughter did with her new camera. Well done Annette.  Well done also to the 32 ladies along with me being the 33rd for making such a grand job of it all, you are the best. All your names got on the quilt, mine too, I wonder if Tessa has found it yet!!!!!

If you click on the link below it will take you to You Tube for the video, make sure you have your sound on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=971VAR6tUy0

Enjoy the video but here are some pictures if you don't wish to view that...

Front and back of quilt on skis ready for pinning...

I had to have a bit of a move round to accommodate it - 84" square...

Log Cabin block...

four make the centre...

wiggly lines for the quilting...

kind of shell quilting for the creams...

T Blocks for Tessa and Terry, quilted with zillions of circles

they are relating to the wheels of the huge truck he drives...

Centre done, quilted firmly for Abby, their dog...

Maple Leaf blocks - Tessa is a Canadian...

more leaves, aren't they pretty,
Fossil Fern fabrics are just gorgeous,

I put the name of the person who made the block as the stem,

not sure if you can see that...

Added a few borders where needed and voila job done...

view of the quilting on back of Maple Leaf block...

Got MARIAN to make the label, isn't it fabulous, well done M...

I had to sew it on though, took ages...

Complete back view of Quilt -

why is it I prefer the backs?????

somewhere along the way we decided to make her a bag

using some of the left over blocks, shame to waste them...

 back of the bag...

bag wrapped up in fabric - green of course with

green and cream ribbons...

Then we decided to do a book of the making of the quilt...

 Some of the leaves....

 I do hope you can read this...

 book wrapped [haha] ready for presentation,

green and cream ribbons again...

Just some of the ladies who participated in the making of the quilt...

from the left at the back -

Ros, Chris, ?, Ange, moi, Carole, Irene, Di, Kimmers, Marian, Katy

front row

Tessa and Fiona

All these ladies are now part of the famous

'Comin Thru' Crew

Well done everyone

AT LAST IT IS HERE

The day has finally come round when I am going to the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham, lovingly/commonly known as the FoQ amongst my friends and myself. It seemed such a long time to wait when Annette bought the ticket for me, way way back earlier in the year, but now, just look, I am going TOMORROW.

WHEEEEEEEEEEE

I have the stall list printed out and all the ones I wish to visit highlighted, and then some others to visit IF I have enough time. I say this cos I am only going for the one day this year, and that's TOMORROW, wheeeeee, and I have a lot to do.

I have to try and view the quilts, buy buy buy some goodies, meet up with the 'Coming Thru' crew, these are the ladies from the Popular Patchwork Magazine Forum...if you are going and you hear a lot and I mean a LOT of squealing that will be us, the 'Coming Thru' crew.

I also have to look out for my lovely little friend Susan, I bumped into her by chance last year, it would be great to see her again, if only for a hug.

I have to do a stint at selling some tickets for the Quilts we made for Breast Cancer, so if you pass by the PP STAND A59 now it has been moved....do stop by and purchase a ticket or two with the chance to win one of these three quilts....

How is that for a bargain ladies, only £1 per ticket...please please please support us, Rosemary instigated these quilts and wanted to raise £1,000......I will let you know AFTER the FoQ when Rosemary has done a total, how much she has raised. I do know she has reached £1000 + already, we are all so proud of her.

Annette went today and she has taken over 600 photographs.......hahaha She does that for me as I have trouble viewing them with my dodgy neck, she puts them onto a disc for me which is great. I can view them at my leisure. Kerstin we haven't forgotten you.

I have now got hiccoughs, darn it, I was going to go to bed as I have to be up early and I mean early in the morning, groan, I am not a morning person at all, but there will be no point until I get rid of these now.

Today Rebecca painted my nails for me, she has got some proper nail art paints/varnish and wanted to do my nails for me.....So...

I have on my right hand, flowers -  all different on each nail,

on the left hand, I have from the little finger to thumb....

F.....

O.....

Q.....

an ice cream cornet with sprinkles.....

a daisy.....

There you go then I will be easy to spot at the FoQ with those nails....I remember a few years back I painted my nails GREEN, and that was how Ange from the forum recognised me...Hi Ange see you tomorrow.

Did I say I was going to the FoQ TOMORROW?????? Wheeeeeeeeeeee........

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I have this week made a quilt following instructions from Geta, I sometimes test her patterns for her and was lucky enough to be allowed to do this one, Geta has done it in Rainbow colours with a cream background which you can view here, you will have to scroll past lots of beautiful things to get to the picture but it is worth it.......
.....but I made mine entirely different as you can see - the pattern will soon be for sale on Geta's site so do watch out for it. I love it and cannot wait to start quilting it but I am off to the FoQ first, did I tel you?????? Tomorrow......

Right, hiccoughs are gone, so am I...

PRETTY STUFF and more

I have called this post Pretty stuff, which relates to the first picture and a possible few later on, although there is an ugly there too, you will spot it when you come to it....

The pretty is for this picture of Rebecca, she looks so grown up in that hat, her mum had the day off the other Saturday and they had fun trying some hats on in the shops before going to the cinema. I think the hat really suits her, but why do I keep wanting to say.... 'The rain in Spain' and stuff like that????

My beautiful 13 year old GD.....

Bookmark and ATC from Fay in Israel,

the painted card was done by disabled children, many thanks Fay they are great...

 Cathy in New Zealand sent me this postcard of a sewing machine,

plus the cheeky chicken card which makes me laugh, thanks Cathy...

the little piece of white is peltex, she uses for making the postcards...

 'AUSTRALIA' Postcard from Tessa,

a Canadian living here in Penrith - confused??

hahaha, thanks Tessa it is fabulous of course...

 Bookmark and ATC sent to Sandy in Australia, from me,

it was Free choice theme...

 I did Pictionary type for the Bookmark, can you work it out???

I have entered yet another 'Strip swap' on the PP Forum,

we had to send Katy 14 strips of red fabric, she mixed them all up

and here are mine, I received them Saturday, thanks Katy...

WOO HOO I have done my Hexagons for the Quilt Set swap Pat -

my hand is now swollen like a balloon but I got them done...

Just thought this was pretty, in the garden above the water butt -

which is constantly overflowing due to the weather...

The President clematis has done really well this year

 masses of flowers on it, but I only wanted one...

 We planted, well hubby planted loads of Lilys this year for a change,

I love Lilys but....

 so does this horrible bug - it is eating them, we go out at regular intervals

and find these little monsters and kill them DEAD, apparently this year

they are rife throughout the country, maybe cos of the rain????

FMQ CHALLENGE with SEWCALGAL -

The tutor for July is

Angela Walters -TILES is the challenge...

you may remember I had done this as the challenge, then I was reminded by one

of the ladies on the Facebook page for this  - Cathy - that I was going to do my samples for this challenge each month of trees....

...so here is my tree for the July Challenge

I have actually cheated cos the tree is not 'tiled' the background is...

I chose NOT to quilt this one for some reason -

this is the back..

Following is a review of the trees done so far...

January with Frances Moore...

February with Diane Gaudynski...

March with Ann Fahl...

April with Don Linn...

May with Leah Day...

June with Cindy Needham...

Hmm looking at some of these I think I may do some over again...

Thanks for looking....



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QUILTING, QUILTING, QUILTING and POSTCARDS

You can see from the title of this post it is all about quilting, I make no apology as it is what I do!

The first pictures are of my latest sample for the FMQ Challenge I am in with SewCalGal I am loving this challenge, it is similar to June's Challenge as we can do what we want in the spaces provided for us. June's were curvy spaces, this month they are uniform and straight. Here then is my first attempt... 

The fabric is Black sari silk and I am using Isacord thread in Emerald Green for the quilting, it looks a bit like mint choc chip, this picture I am not finished as you can see from the space at the lower edge...

this is just showing the back of it so far...

this is it totally finished...

back...

close up of back...

close up of front...

I have put the next three pictures on as when I took them, I don't know what I did, but they came out really weird, but I kind of like them so kept them for fun use maybe later for something or other, who knows....

this looks a bit like Verdi Gris don't you think....

just really odd...

I am now having a go at the second part of the challenge,

it is taking me a while, so no pictures yet....

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In between times, I did a challenge from the PP Forum which Katy had set for us, it was to make a 'Wonky block' I opted for Log Cabin as I like LC, not sure about the wonky though, but I gave it a shot, this is the result....

this is it quilted, I thought I would make it into a bag, but changed my mind...

this is the back view of the blocks...

TaDa - I made a cushion out of them for my chair in the sewing room, when I sit back, the back of my chair is a bit loose now and I get back ache so this is perfect for me, it is surprisingly comfortable too, job done...

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A few posts back I offered up two of my Christmas UFOs for swaps of cream fabrics. Hmm, I had no takers unfortunately, but my lovely friend Dar saw I was after some creams and look what she sent me as an RAK...that means Random Act of Kindness, Dar I am absolutely thrilled with these and will most certainly let you see what I use them for which will be something very soon, thank you so much...

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My friend Betty asked Annette and myself to go to her house to help 'rid' her of some of her fabrics, we took along a big bag and had a lovely time going through her stash. To tell the truth I could have brought it all home, Betty has a good eye for fabric, but we kept it to a minimum this time, hopefully gave her what she considered a good price for it all, and promised we will go soon to help her sort it all out into some sort of order and have another buying session. These are the fabrics I bought from her...

Plainish ones...

Patterned...

I thought I had a huge stash but Betty's make mine look silly. See you soon Betty.

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This Postcard I received from Tessa in the swap on PP Forum -

Theme - Trip Around the World, we pick a country and they have to make a Postcard to represent that country, we are seeing some amazing postcards folks, this country was CHINA, thank you Tessa, this is perfect...

Another gorgeous Postcard, this time the theme was HAPPINESS is - set by Alison, I invited her to choose a theme as she had been terribly bored being bedridden for a long time and unable to do anything, she said she spent a lot of time looking out the window at her garden which gave her great happiness, hence the theme...

Anyway, this Postcard is for me from Helen, now Helen I have to tell you is a Senior Citizen and blind in one eye and one hand is pretty difficult to do anything with, so I have to take my hat off to her as these little flowers have been hand embroidered on the card, Helen loves her garden and all the flowers in it, thank you so much Helen I love it...

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